France asked
Vietnam to release four jailed dissidents during President Francois Hollande's
visit to the authoritarian country, a French source said Wednesday.

On his two-day
tour of communist Vietnam, Hollande hailed economic ties with the former French
colony but sidestepped talking about rights issues publicly.

The four are a
Catholic dissident, a blogger, a land rights defender and an activist who tried
to form an opposition movement, according to the source travelling with the
president.

Their names were
passed to Vietnamese authorities on orders from Hollande.

The one-party
state is routinely criticised for its intolerance of dissent, with regime
critics regularly arrested or jailed and all newspapers and television channels
government-run.

Among those
currently in custody are businessman Tran Huynh Duy Thuc, who is serving 16
years on charges of trying to overthrow the state, and blogger Nguyen Huu Vinh,
known by his pseudonym Anh Ba Sam, jailed for five years for posting
anti-government articles online.

France and
Vietnam signed a number of deals on the trip, including a $6.5 billion agreement
with Airbus and three Vietnamese carriers for 40 planes.

Amnesty
International called on Hollande Tuesday to make sure these deals did not
overshadow rights issues.

"Human rights
must not be sacrificed to trade and security deals. President Hollande must use
his visit to call on the Vietnamese authorities to meet their human rights
obligations under international law," Camille Blanc, chair of Amnesty
International France, said in a statement.

France is one of
Vietnam's leading European trading partners and the second largest aid donor to
the country after Japan.